A Decade Apart: EP “Promotions Part 1”

Coming fresh off of the release of their new EP, Premonitions Part 1, Columbus based band A Decade Apart played a hell of a set at Skully’s Music Hall. The energy was high as the band took to the stage; as their set progressed, that energy only increased. People were letting go and just enjoying the music. The band played a lot of new tracks mixed with some old classics. Singer Josh Hardin really knew how to move the crowd; at one point he called for everyone to get real low, and as the song dropped we all jumped up and started jamming. You don’t want to miss out on the show these guys put on; also don’t forget to check out their new EP, Premonitions Part 1.

I was able to sit down with the guys and talk about the band.

Just to start off, why don’t you guys introduce yourselves and your role in the band?

Sean: I am Sean and I play the bass.

Josh: I’m Josh, the vocalist.

Donnie: Donnie, guitar and vocals.

Tim: Tim, drums and tracks.

Travis: I’m Travis, ‘lead’ guitarist.

Cool. Jumping right in, you guys have a new EP, Premonitions Part 1, out. Tell me about it. Overall thoughts and reactions?

Donnie: So it’s part 1. The reason for that is some of the songs we’ve had for a little bit. We wanted to get them recorded and out to people. With it being part 1, the songs hit kind of hard with more of the things people are going through in life; difficulties, depression, drugs, that sort of thing. It kind of deals with that, and it’s all to lead to Part 2 which will be an EP full of more hopeful, less depressing stuff. It show’s where we’ve been and where we’re going.

What was the driving force behind the decision to split it into two parts as opposed to a full length record?

Donnie: A big part of that decision was, well, one: we wanted to get the tracks out sooner than later. And two: it’s just sort of how it’s done. People aren’t buying full albums anymore. They’re buying individual songs. So breaking it up like that for iTunes, Spotify, streaming purposes, that’s just the age of music. Full albums aren’t necessarily appreciated the same It seems to just make sense to break it up into multiple EPs.

Yeah that makes sense. I definitely agree with the shift in the industry about full length records. How did you guys all meet? I’m always curious about that with bands.

Josh: Yeah, so Donnie and I have known each other since high school. Forever and a day ago it seems like. It’s just been a long long time that I’ve known him, then we met Sean. We started a band called Silent Days.

Donnie: It might have actually been through Craigslist.

Josh: Oh yeah! That was the age of Craigslist haha. But yeah that project ended up fizzling out. A couple years later we all took a break from music, then we decided to start this up. It’s been awesome ever since!

Fantastic! What would you guys cite as some of your influences, either personally or as a band?

Donnie: Ah, on that I can say that’s one thing that makes us unique. A lot of bands try to collectively have one sound. But we let everybody take their own inspirations into our music. We all pull from our roots to make our sound. You can hear everybody’s different influences in our music. Mine personally, I grew up with a lot of Blink 182, and eventually I got into bands like Asking Alexandria, Devil Wears Prada, that sort of thing.

Josh: Senses Fail and Emery.

Sean: Mostly bands like A Day To Remember, Kill Switch, blessthefall.

Right on.

Travis: I’m more of an Avenged Sevenfold, My Darkest Days, kind of person, I’m a little different from the others haha.

Tim: I’m into more I See Stars and that kind of music. The digital sounding is more of my style.

Kind of a fun question, I always like to ask bands this because it just makes them stop and think for a second. If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Josh: Old age, man. Like Wolverine, regeneration powers. That would be awesome.

Sean: Mind reading would be cool… I’m struggling right now to think of another one haha.

Donnie: It’d make your relationship easier haha.

Travis: I like the whole idea of time control. You could go back and fix any of your mistakes that you don’t like to talk about.

Donnie: That’s just because you’re always late!

Travis: Yeah thats definitely true!

Tim: I’m lame, I’d like to fly.

Donnie: What!? Thats just because you work at an airport!

Amazing. Going into your creative process, do you guys all get together and just jam and see what sounds good? Or go your separate ways, write some riffs or tunes, then bring them to the group?

Josh: I think it’s about a mixture, Donnie could come up with something awesome on the guitar, Tim could do something awesome as far as tracks, that kind of thing. It’s a collaboration thing where we may do stuff on our own, but then bring it all together. That’s where the magic happens.

Travis: There’s been quite a few songs, especially Calamity, where we all just heard the track and started playing. I put in that intro you hear in it now randomly and we were like “oh okay, thats cool.” We have those songs too but for a lot of the newer ones, we just kind of waited for a click on certain things, then right then developed it.

Do you guys find you end up with a lot of material that doesn’t get released? Like maybe you’ll icebox it for later or revisit it down the road?

Josh: Definitely.

Donnie: Not necessarily full tunes, but like…

Tim: I have an entire library full of tracks.

Donnie: Yeah exactly, there’s a lot of bits and pieces. Maybe like an incredibly cool chorus or verse, but we can’t make it work so we’re like “ehhh nope let’s not.” And then we try to record it so we can at least remember it, but sometimes you just completely forget it.

What do you guys want to achieve as a band? What are your goals and where do you see yourselves going?

Sean: It’d definitely be cool to travel more. Whether thats regionally, nationally, whatever. It would be cool to be a lot more prominent in Columbus.

Josh: I’d agree with that. I think the main focus for me would be getting on a more national level, like festivals, shows, things like that. Branching out more, that would be my goal. It’s not so much being signed to a label anymore, it’s how much can you do on your own and having a little bit of help on the outside.

Travis: My younger mind likes to say my main goal with these guys is to just get to the top and makes friends everywhere. Live the music lifestyle. It’s all about doing what you want to do in the end. Live your dream out.

That’s absolutely important, yeah. Back on the EP, do you guys have a particular song that’s close to your heart?

Josh: I would definitely say Symptoms of Suicide for sure, for me. It’s exactly what it sounds like. Dealing with depression, relationships, and things of that sort. That one really hit home every time I sing it.

Donnie: Impulse for me. It’s the first one that’s on the EP. The lyrics were a generic way of dealing with some stuff that I dealt with. Just trying to change your life in a more positive way.

Tim: Breathless is probably my favorite. Its the last song on the EP. It has a lot of moving parts to the whole song. It’s really fun to play and lyrically it’s great. I just love how that song came together.

Travis: I like Contrails. We already released it, but I just like it because I am the younger one. I like being angsty and all that stuff.

Touching on that, you’ve mentioned a couple times you’re the younger one. Is that where the name A Decade Apart comes from?

All: Ah haha yeah it is.

You mentioned earlier that Part 2 is a bit more uplifting, hopeful, that sort of thing. In writing it, did you find that your process was different? Or is it closer to the same process as part 1?

Donnie: For me, it’s the same writing process.

Ok.

Donnie: It’s just being able to get rid of some of the negative emotions to be more uplifting. As far as the process goes, it’s the exact same, it’s just how I write.

Tim: The tunes just sound more uplifting already. The new style, just the songs on it, are more uplifting even without having full lyrics. It just sounds more positive.

Right on. Just wrapping up, do you guys have any closing remarks? Shout outs? Freestyles? Anything you want to say.

Sean: Just a big thank you to all of our fans and supporters who have been with us from day one. Also thanks to the new fans we meet at every show, all the relationships that we build. We wouldn’t be anywhere without the fans. We’re very appreciative.

Travis: We have big plans for our fans and we don’t plan on stopping any time soon. We hope to keep this up for quite some time.

Josh: We’ve got a lot of good things in the works and we hope that everybody likes it, once we can talk about it. It’s a very exciting time, but also very stressful because we have to come up with not only a great product, but a vision for the future in how this band is going to grow. Not just musically, but as a collective.